09.30.09

I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

For decades the United States of America has been edging away from its only real friend in the Middle East.

The relationship — which began tentatively at that brave moment when President Truman defied the ‘wise men” in his own administration and chose to recognize the newly born Jewish state; the relationship Israel worked tenaciously to strengthen in the ensuing years despite consistent opposition from within the State Department and other government circles; the relationship which since the Six Day War has become increasingly one-sided as America has chosen to cater to incessant Arab demands and press Israel into compliance — in the end it could no longer withstand the erosive onslaught it had weathered for so long.

The administration of President George W. Bush set the country apparently irreversibly on this path when it spawned the two-state vision and propelled Israel towards accepting the “Road Map for peace.”

But things came to a head at the United Nations this week in a tale of two speeches delivered in front of some 140 world leaders who had come together in New York for the 64th session of the General Assembly.

As they listened – joined by countless millions of others to whom the event was beamed around the world – these presidents and prime ministers, princes and kings witnessed the leader of the world’s most powerful nation contemptuously turn his back on one of the smallest.

And they heard the elected and oh-so-despised leader of that little nation – which has been around far, far longer than the United States and virtually every other nation with delegates in that room – spell out with dignity and conviction the justness of his people’s cause.

Betraying Israel with a kiss, Barack Obama expressed appreciation for the Jewish state, then denounced it as a nation of aggressive expansionists who were illegally occupying another people’s land.

America will not tolerate Israeli settlements, he stated emphatically. And Israel’s presence in Samaria and Judea is an “occupation” that has to end.

The situation between Israel and the Arabs was not the number one item in the American’s speech, which spelled out his vision for a new world order built on four “fundamental” pillars: Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, the pursuit of peace and security, the preservation of the planet and a global economy that advances opportunity for all.

Obama spoke for 38 minutes, of which less than five – well into the speech – were devoted to the Arab-Israel conflict. The transcript is 61 paragraphs long with just five speaking to this issue.

Yet there was no doubt that, to the president, the members of the General Assembly, and the press covering the event, this was the most important issue of all. Of the 12 ovations Obama received during the speech, fully half of them came in those few short minutes as he laid down his expectations.

That the United States:

* would continue to seek “a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and the Arab world.”
* would “continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”
* would continue to work towards the establishment of “a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.”
* “does Israel no favors when [it] fails to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians.”

This man’s idea of “just” is totally twisted.

According to him, Jewish settlement in the land of their forefathers is “illegitimate.”

The Jews’ presence in Samaria and Judea – the cradle wherein their nation was born, is an “occupation” that has to end.

But the Palestinian Arabs’ – who have never in history had a national home or identity; who forced their “cause” down the world’s throats by violence, terrorism murder and mayhem; who to this day vow to use any territory they get as a springboard from which to destroy the rest of Israel – these people’s demand for a national homeland to be established on those historical Jewish lands constitute “legitimate claims and rights!”

“Woe,” warns the God of Israel through the prophet Isaiah: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

“Woe,” warns the God of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, to those who “strengthen the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life.”

Twenty-four hours after Obama leveled his blow at Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand.

“I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state” he said, eyes piercing the dignitaries as he looked around the room,

“I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.”

Netanyahu strongly took issue with those who deny the Holocaust that killed two out of every three Jews in Europe a few short decades ago,

He reminded his audience – as if he needed to – of the burgeoning threat to destroy the State of Israel in a nuclear holocaust.

Recounting the disastrous outcome of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon (2000) and the Gaza Strip (2005), the Israeli insisted that his nation would not accept a withdrawal from the mountains of Samaria and Judea only to see a rocket-armed terrorist base set up overlooking the population centers in the coastal plain.

But if the Arabs truly want to make peace, the people of Israel will make peace with them.

Those Arabs – or their representatives – left the hall; unable to even hear an Israeli leader speak directly to them.

As the session came to an end – having also provided an uninhibited platform for the anti-semitic tirades of Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Ghadaffi – Israelis took stock of the realities now confronting them.

America – the nation they had long seen as a friend and ally – has effectively crossed the field to the other side – joining with all the other nations who refuse to recognize Israel’s claim to its biblical heartland, and who demand that Israel risk its very existence to appease the Arab world.

Time alone – and perhaps not much of it at all – will show whether there is any validity to what I will now say here:

That on September 23, 2009, in his globally-screened address to world leaders at the United Nations in New York, Barack Obama moved his country close to – perhaps even into – “the winepress of the Lord.”

Long ago the Almighty warned all those nations who come against Israel that the “Day” will come when He girds up His loins and in anger and fury will tread them out, in the winepress of His wrath.

“For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near;
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.” (Obadiah 1:15)

Maryam Rustampoor, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, were arrested and sent to Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. The two women did not rob a bank, kill a man or beat up someone.

Their crime? Loving Jesus. And it is for this reason alone they are still imprisoned.

In August during a court hearing, the two were questioned repeatedly about their faith. They were told to return to Islam.

“We love Jesus,” was their reply. Prosecutors asked the women, who had already spent five months in prison, if they regretted being Christians.

“We have no regrets,” they said. “We will not deny our faith.”

The judge sent them back to Evin Prison – notorious for its brutality – to “think about” their decision.

“We have already done our thinking,” they told him.

Maryam and Marzieh are among dozens of Iranian Christians arrested, detained or interrogated in Iran in recent months. The harassment is the radical Islamic government’s response to an Iranian revival that has thousands of Iranians coming to Christ each month.

UPDATE: On Sept. 10, The Voice of the Martyrs received reports that Maryam and Marzieh’s health has deteriorated and urgent prayers are needed for God to encourage, and miraculously heal them.

According to Elam Ministries, the women who have been in prison for more than six months are suffering from sore throats, irregular painful stomach aches and intense headaches. “Both have lost much weight during their ordeal, because of their sicknesses and lack of nutrition,” officials at Elam Ministries said. “Marzieh’s tooth infection is only being treated by painkillers and if the infection spreads (it) could become critical.”

Maryam and Marzieh are being held at Evin prison which is notorious for its harsh treatment of prisoners. The prison is overcrowded, has limited medical facilities, and many prisoners are reportedly sick and causing a high risk for spreading viruses.

Elam officials also reported the judge in charge of young women’s case, has said they are “not cooperating” because they have refused to deny Christ. “The implication of his remark is that they continue to stay in prison. This is the normal punishment for female apostates: they are kept imprisoned until they recant,” the officials added. VOM encourages you to pray for this judge to be either removed from the case or that he orders their release. Pray for their healing and for the Holy Spirit to encourage them. Praise God for their faithfulness.

09.29.09

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Iran declared its refusal Tuesday to discuss its nuclear program — including the disclosure of a second nuclear enrichment plant — when it sits down at the negotiating table Thursday with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, Reuters reported. A top Iranian official told the news agency that his country will not abandon its nuclear activities, “even for a second.”

Iran’s nuclear chief also announced Tuesday that his country built its newly revealed uranium enrichment facility inside a mountain and next to a military site to ensure continuity of its nuclear activities in case of an attack. The revelation comes as the Obama administration works up plans to push for new sanctions against the country, targeting its energy, financial and telecommunications sectors if it does not comply with international demands to come clean about its nuclear program, U.S. officials said Monday.

The officials said the U.S. would expand its own penalties against Iranian companies and press for greater international sanctions against foreign firms, largely European, that do business in the country unless Iran can prove that its nuclear activities are not aimed at developing an atomic weapon.

Among the ideas being considered are asset freezes and travel bans against Iranian and foreign businesses and individuals who do business in those areas, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the measures were still under review.

The proposed sanctions would largely focus on investment in Iran’s energy infrastructure and development, the officials said. Until now, the sanctions have dealt mainly with companies and people suspected of buying or selling weapons of mass destruction or their components.

Diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and Germany meet with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator on Thursday to press once again an offer of incentives for Iran to halt suspect activity.

But U.S. officials familiar with the process that dates back to the Bush administration are skeptical that Iran will agree to demands to fully disclose its intentions. Iran repeatedly has denied it wants the bomb and that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Previous meetings — the last in July 2008 — have not made progress and the officials said they did not think Thursday’s talks in Geneva would produce any significant developments on the nuclear front.

Instead, the officials said they expected Iran to raise a broad range of global political concerns while the other participants focused on Iran’s nuclear program, including the disclosure last week of a new uranium enrichment facility.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the talks, said they believed another round of talks would be scheduled before mid-November, at which Iran would face demands to address the international community’s concerns.

If they refuse, the officials said the U.S. and its partners would move ahead with new penalties.

It’s been a busy month for the FBI. All 50 field offices have been involved in the ongoing investigating of what may turn out to be the biggest terrorist plot in the United States since 9/11. The man at its center is Najibullah Zazi, 24, an Afghan immigrant with a green card — which makes him the FBI’s worst nightmare of a threat.

“I want to talk today about the changing shape of terrorism and, in particular, the threat of homegrown terrorism,” FBI Director Robert Mueller declared in an executive speech in June 2006. When the FBI calls someone a homegrown terrorist, they mean the person gets radicalized while living on American soil. The homegrown terrorist speaks English, is familiar with American customs, and is able to blend in. The privilege of U.S. travel documents allows the homegrown terrorist remarkable freedom of movement around the globe. Najibullah Zazi, for example, was able to travel from New York to Switzerland to Qatar to Pakistan, where he stayed for approximately five months before returning to the land he calls home.

“To detect homegrown terrorists,” Robert Mueller pointed out, is difficult. “They operate under the radar. And that makes their detection that much more difficult for all of us.”

Zazi, it appears, is such a case. “He was a nice guy,” one of his co-workers at Big Sky Shuttle in Lakewood, Colorado, told me on Friday afternoon (the co-worker chose not to be named). That’s where Zazi got a job working as an airport van driver beginning in February 2009. When I asked the man if he ever expected his co-worker to be at the center of an international terrorist plot, he replied: “No way, it’s so weird.”

Then we have congresspeople like House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich who said:“I love these members that get up and say, ‘Read the bill’. Well, what good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

The congresspeople pushing this 72-hour waiting period resolution are on the right track and are responding to what the people told them during the August break. Good Job. Now make it a bill and get it passed into law so that you congresspeople actually have to obey it and we’ll be getting somewhere.

FORT DODGE, Iowa – With American protesters shouting, “Read the bill!” at their U.S. representatives during the summer’s town hall meetings, a growing tide of lawmakers are working to force Congress to slow down the legislative process enough to do exactly that.

A pair of resolutions are pending before the U.S. House of Representatives that would require Congress to delay both debate and voting on legislation until bills are made public online for a set waiting period.

A bipartisan group of 128 legislators have co-sponsored the first resolution, H.Res. 554, which would require any legislation – including both original bills and significant amendments – be made public for 72 hours before debate can begin.

The second, H. Res. 721, would make the waiting period 30 days in the specific case of major health-care reform.

“In my eyes, it’s simply common sense to give the American people the time they need to analyze proposed legislation,” said Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, a co-sponsor of both bills. “Unfortunately, it’s become a common practice for lawmakers in the House of Representatives to offer sweeping legislative measures just hours before we’re expected to vote on them. Sometimes, these proposals are introduced in the dead of night. This is undemocratic, and it needs to stop.”

Latham’s website points to a recent example in June, when lawmakers added a 300-page manager’s amendment to the cap-and-trade energy bill at about 3 a.m. on the day the House voted on final passage of the legislation.

Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., along with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is the original sponsor of H. Res. 554.

“Members of Congress are too often asked to make decisions on bills that can be longer than telephone books and are only given a few hours to actually read them,” says Baird. “Both parties are guilty, and both should stop doing it.”

“Shadowy legislative practices shut the people out of the process and force representatives in Congress to vote on important proposals without knowing what’s in them,” Latham added. “It’s time to bring transparency back to Congress.”

Many Americans during the recent congressional recess expressed displeasure at town hall meetings over massive spending and health-care legislation that the Obama administration urged Congress to pass quickly.

Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Wis., was one of several legislators to be met at their town halls with protesters chanting, “Read the bill! Read the bill!”

A Wisconsin man who attended Kagen’s town hall meeting in Green Bay explained to the Fox News Channel that he wanted to express the message, “We don’t feel that Washington is listening to us.”

He told host Bill Hemmer, “The way the Congress has been acting in general lately is in my mind totally unconstitutional. They want to take one of the most important issues in my life, which is health care, they want to say that they are going to reform it, but they haven’t even read the bill.”

“One of the reasons voters are so upset today is that they get the sense they aren’t being trusted to make their own judgment about what goes on in Washington,” Baird said.

The language of Baird’s bill itself states its purpose is to “enhance public participation in American democracy” and “help restore public trust in government.”

The bill also states its purpose is to “slow the explosive growth of the $11,000,000,000,000 national debt of the United States, reduce excessive annual budget deficits, and control the size and scope of government by ensuring that there is adequate scrutiny of proposals for new and amended laws, taxes, and expenditures.”

Despite bipartisan support, however, H. Res. 554 has languished in committee since June.

Similar measures have also failed in the Senate, where last week, the Senate Finance Committee narrowly voted down a proposal to require a 72-hour waiting period before the committee casts any final vote.

“Let’s be honest about it,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “Most people don’t read the legislative language.”

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told Politico only five percent of Americans could understand the legalese, anyway.

“Anybody who thinks that is going to be transparent to the American people is really not telling it like it is,” Conrad said.

On the House side, however, the movement for a waiting period is gaining steam.

Rep. Walden last week filed a motion to discharge H. Res. 554 from committee, which means if 218 representatives can be found to sign the discharge, the resolution can be voted on, even over the objections of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“If Americans contact their representative and encourage him or her to sign this discharge petition,” Baird told Fund, “I’m confident it will become law.”

Americans may contact their representative from the U.S. House website.

At press time, 178 of the required 218 representatives had signed the discharge pushing for a vote on H. Res. 554.

The other transparency proposal, H. Res. 721, which would require a 30-day waiting period on major health-care reform, was introduced to the House by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., only just this month and also remains in the House Committee on Rules. It currently has 43 cosponsors.

There is absolutely no reason for any congressperson to oppose this resolution. Contact your representative today and tell them to sign on to it. Now!!

A political activist and pro-family leader says last week’s Islamic event on Capitol Hill was clearly a bust as far as attendance was concerned. Robert Knight, a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and a senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries, adds that unless a person could understand Arabic, one wouldn’t have known what was being said there.

Organizers of Friday’s “Islam on Capitol Hill” event blame opposition by some Christian groups for a much smaller turnout than they anticipated. The number of Muslims who actually gathered outside the U.S. Capitol ranged from 1,000 to 3,000 — a fraction of the 50,000 that organizers expected. Muslims who did participate report they heard calls to repent from some of the Christians.

“[Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch] said they did add up to the ultimate goal of submission to Islam and had a triumphal air to them. People who could understand them knew they were talking about the superiority of Islam over everything else,” he adds.

From Jeff Schreiber at America’s Right:“Despicable even by this administration’s standards, the White House has decided to increase the financial burden on aging Alaskan World War II veterans by excising pension money from its outlined priorities for a new military appropriations bill.”

You know, we went through this very same thing in March when the White House sent out what it later insisted was a trial balloon, suggesting that it was going to force combat-wounded veterans to pay for treatment of battlefield wounds through their own private health care coverage. The White House eventually reneged on that after criticism reached a fever pitch, and I hope that the president similarly flip-flops here as well.

Back in March, the administration hoped to save $540 million by having wounded veterans provide their own care. While, in this case, the exact number of pennies looking to be pinched at senior veterans’ expense hasn’t been divulged, the argument remains the same. We gave $900 million to Hamas after that group brutally murdered innocent Israeli women and children back in December of 2008. We passed a $787 billion so-called “stimulus” package committing $650 million to provide coupons for free digital television converter boxes, $335 million for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $300 million for fancy electric golf carts, $400 million for research into the farce that is global warming and a whopping $8 billion on a Mag-Lev train for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. We’re preparing to spend trillions of dollars on health care reform and bankrupt our economy through cap-and-trade. Yet we cannot scrape together enough money to ensure that the few remaining members of the Alaska Territorial Guard can live the rest of their lives without additional stress?

09.28.09

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

The Emperor want-to-be in the White House is flexing his unconstitutional muscles again.

The ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee is demanding answers from the government agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid after it ordered a private health insurance company to stop informing its enrollees about looming Medicare cuts under President Obama’s healthcare plan.

In a letter last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informed Humana that it had launched an investigation of the health insurance company’s marketing practices. CMS has also ordered Humana to stop telling its enrollees that President Obama’s proposed healthcare plan could lower their Medicare Advantage benefits. Medicare Advantage plans are private plans purchased by Medicare patients to extend Medicare.

A commentator at Canada Free Press who earlier exposed the Democratic National Committee used two separate forms to affirm Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president has heard back from readers and research – and now reports Democrats failed to certify their candidate’s eligibility in 49 of the 50 states.

The writer, JB Williams, further reports that in most cases, certification of eligibility was also missing from DNC filings during the primaries.

“In most states,” Williams writes, “it appears that the DNC never certified constitutional eligibility for Barack Hussein Obama, despite their many claims of proper vetting and certification, all of which we now know to be false.”

As WND reported, Williams released copies of two documents apparently prepared by Democrats to certify Barack Obama as their nominee for president, one that contains language affirming his constitutional eligibility and filed in Hawaii (where state law requires the specific language) and another omitting the language and filed in the remaining 49 states.

The first includes a verification that Obama and Joe Biden, then-candidate for vice president, “are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution.”

One image of the certification for Barack Obama’s nomination, including includes the affirmation Obama and Joe Biden “are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution”

The second form obtained by Williams appears identical, but in this one, the verification of eligibility under the requirements of the U.S. Constitution is gone.

Another image of a certification, on which the certification of eligibility has been removed

Williams reports that Republicans use a document universally that affirms their candidate’s eligibility and that Democrats have used the form that omits the certification language in previous elections, but nonetheless questions why the DNC certified Obama’s eligibility only in Hawaii.

He followed up his question by consulting a handwriting expert to compare the two documents.

“My conclusion is as follows,” Williams quotes the unnamed expert, “all three signers of the certification that included the constitutionally eligible clause were aware that it was not true at the time they signed it.”

WND has contacted the Democratic National Committee multiple times to request an explanation of the two images, including whether one might be a forgery. A spokeswoman in the press office confirmed, “We are aware of it,” but declined to elaborate.

Likewise, WND contacted the office of one of the document’s signers, now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but got no response over several days. And the White House declined to respond to multiple e-mails asking for a comment.

“Nancy Pelosi knew that she was signing a false statement on behalf of Obama,” Williams concludes in answer to his own question. “But she also knew that this false statement of eligibility would only be filed in Hawaii, which has a very specific state statute that requires that each party certify the constitutional eligibility of their candidates, using specific text.”

“But even more important,” Williams states, “the DNC never ‘certified’ that Obama met all legal requirements for the office of president, like the RNC did for McCain.”

“These are some administrative changes in the way the state administers federal grants,” [Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana] explains. “Now, none of those clinics perform abortions, according to Planned Parenthood, but they do, of course, distribute contraceptives to minors and the other things that Planned Parenthood does, which raises concerns with families and people of faith.”

Clark was asked if recent undercover videos by Live Action Films and Lila Rose had an impact on the decision. Those videos demonstrated employees at Planned Parenthood clinics trying to help an underage girl get an abortion, avoid reporting her older boyfriend, and obtain a judicial bypass.

“Certainly that was a horrible PR move for Planned Parenthood, but it’s something that we in the pro-life community suspected for many years,” he admits. “There’s been rumors about Planned Parenthood clinics, abortion clinics, undermining sexual misconduct with minors laws or statutory rape laws, and those two videos confirmed it.”

The Pali terrorist are trying to stir things up again, this time on Temple Mount.

JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority was behind violent clashes on the Temple
Mount today that left 24 people wounded hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, according to both Israeli security sources and a source inside the PA.

Earlier today, clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers erupted at the Temple Mount and at several sites throughout Jerusalem’s Old City.

The incidents reportedly took place just as a group of Jewish visitors ascended the Mount –the holiest site in Judaism.

Much of the Palestinian news media is claiming the Jewish worshipers were right-wing Israeli extremists who ascended the Mount to threaten the site. In actuality, many of the Jewish dozen or so visitors today were tourists and were part of a guided group that regularly ascends the Mount during daily hours when Jewish visitors are permitted.

According to multiple witnesses as well as to Israel’s police spokesman, Shmulik Ben Ruby, the clashes began as soon as the Jewish group entered the site.

Immediately, about 150 Palestinian worshipers hurled rocks at the Jewish group and at policemen who were escorting them, slightly wounding two policemen. Police responded with stun grenades while whisking the Jewish visitors away.

Palestinians at several areas in Jerusalem’s Old City also began hurling rocks at Jews today.

Today’s clashes had all the trappings of a pre-planned Palestinian campaign.

Indeed, Israeli security officials told WND they have specific information that Ahmed Rweihi, the chief of the PA’s so-called Jerusalem unit, was in touch with demonstration leaders at the Temple Mount the past few days and personally incited today’s violence.

An official in the PA, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not deny Rweihi helped incite the clashes.

The PA has in the past orchestrated riots on the Temple Mount that later escalated into massive terrorist campaigns to pressure Israel into extreme concessions.

In September 2000, the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the Mount.

At first, the Palestinians claimed the stone throwing was spontaneous. Later, top PA officials, including PLO leader Yasser Arafat and his deputy, Marwan Barghouti, admitted the Temple Mount clashes were pre-planned.

The 2000 intifada began after Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.

Clashes follow Obama’s demand for ‘1967 borders’

Today’s clashes follow a three-way meeting last week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

During his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Obama used strongly worded language to call for the creation of a “viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967.”

The term “occupation” routinely is used by the Palestinians as well as some countries hostile to the Jewish state in reference to Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It is unusual for U.S. presidents to use the term, although Jimmy Carter once famously called Israel’s presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem “illegal.”

“Occupation that began in 1967” is a specific reference to the lands Israel retained after the Six Day War of that year, particularly the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.

Temple Mount: No pray zone

Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers during Sharon’s visit.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered “sensitive” by the Waqf.

During “open” days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any “holy objects” to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

Muslim holy site?

King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.

The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the Second for almost 600. Both temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the temple – the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.

The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God’s test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach – literally “the anointed one,” the Jewish Messiah – will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.

The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

Muslims constructed the al Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.

Muslims later began to associate al Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from “a sacred mosque” – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to “the farthest mosque,” and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Koran.

While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren’t always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al Aqsa Mosque as their “third holiest site” and always recognized the existence of the Jewish temples.

According to an Israeli attorney, Dr. Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book “How Dreadful is this Place!” that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.

Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the fourteenth century, Islamic scholar Taqi al Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the ultraconservative Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that “in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron.”

Fearful that they’re losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access, The Washington Times reported on Monday.

The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party’s spines on the contentious issue, say it’s unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they’ve been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements.

“Legal permanent residents should be able to purchase their plans, and they should also be eligible for subsidies if they need it. Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans. It keeps them out of the emergency room,” said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Honda was joined by more than 20 of his colleagues in two letters laying out the demands.

Coverage for immigrants is one of the thorniest issues in the health care debate, and one many Democratic leaders would like to avoid. But immigrant rights groups and the Democrats who sent the letters say they have to take a stand now.

This is cause for concern. The missiles are capable of reaching Israel and can most likely carry a nuclear payload. Keep praying for the safety of Israel and the Jews.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said it successfully completed two days of missile tests that including launching its longest-range missiles on Monday, weapons capable of carrying a warhead and striking Israel, U.S. military bases in the Middle East, and parts of Europe.

State television said the powerful Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran’s missile program, successfully tested upgraded versions of the medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles with can fly up to 1,200 miles. It was the third and final round of missile tests in two days of drills by the Guard.

The Sajjil-2 missile is Iran’s most advanced two-stage surface-to-surface missile and is powered entirely by solid-fuel while the older Shahab-3 uses a combination of solid and liquid fuel in its most advanced form, which is also known as the Qadr-F1.

Solid fuel is seen as a technological breakthrough for any missile program as solid fuel increases the accuracy of missiles in reaching targets.

The war games come at a time when Iran is under intense international pressure to fully disclose its nuclear activities. They began Sunday, two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing an underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Sunday the drills were meant to show Tehran is prepared to crush any military threat from another country.

The revelation of Iran’s previously secret nuclear site has given greater urgency to a key meeting on Thursday in Geneva between Iran and six major powers trying to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.

More Democrat duplicity. Two sets of rules with no sense of fairness whatsoever. Pathetic.

BOSTON — A Massachusetts judge on Friday rejected a Republican request to delay the swearing in of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s temporary replacement.

The state Republican Party argued that Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick exceeded his constitutional authority by appointing Paul G. Kirk Jr. on Thursday. Lawmakers passed a bill this week giving Patrick the power to choose an interim senator.

Laws usually take effect in 90 days, but Patrick signed a letter declaring the bill an emergency.
Republicans said law permitting such a declaration does not apply in this case. The state attorney general’s office disagreed.

“The (Republican) Party has not shown that it has a chance to succeed on the merits and, therefore, any risk of harm to the party will not outweigh the risk of harm to the governor and the commonwealth,” Connolly wrote.

Kirk is to be sworn in Friday afternoon in Washington.

Democrats are eager to have Kirk take Kennedy’s seat to regain a critical 60th Senate vote that President Barack Obama may need to pass a health care overhaul — his top domestic priority. That would give the Democrats enough votes to overcome Republican efforts to use legislative tactics to block a final vote on the bill.

Racism has many faces and isn’t just limited to Blacks and Hispanics. Whites also have to endure it.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is investigating an Arizona school district’s newly adopted racial policy that purportedly calls for a “two-tiered form of student discipline: one for black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else,” according to a newspaper columnist.

As WND reported, Arizona Republic columnist Doug MacEachern drew attention to a decision made by the Tucson Unified School District’s board over the summer to adopt a “Post-Unitary Status Plan,” which includes the goal of reducing suspensions and expulsions of minority students to reflect “no ethnic/racial disparities.”

“TUSD principals and disciplinarians (assuming such creatures still exist) are being asked to set two standards of behavior for their students,” MacEachern commented. “Some behavior will be met with strict penalties; some will not. It all depends on the color of the student’s skin.”

“School data that show disparities in suspension/expulsion rates will be examined in detail for root causes,” the new policy states. “Special attention will be dedicated to data regarding African-American and Hispanic students.”

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne blasted the discipline plan Wednesday, according to the Arizona Daily Star. He admitted he hadn’t read the plan but called it “abhorrent,” warning that ethnicity should never be a consideration in disciplinary decisions.

“Either students have misbehaved or they haven’t,” he said.

“When you issue a decree that we want to reduce the discipline of minority students, you’re sending a message to teachers that if they have a student who is misbehaving and who is in a protected class, then they need to treat that student more leniently.”

TUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen said Horne’s portrayal of the policy “is really not the truth.”

According to the report, the district is receiving dozens of angry e-mails from people across the nation.

The district has asked the Arizona Republic to retract the MacEachern’s characterization of the discipline policy.

MacEachern recently claimed his column prompted the federal government to look into the district policy.

“The legal office of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights told me Tuesday that it is looking into the district’s overly enthusiastic plan for lowering minority discipline reports, as a result of my Sunday column on the subject,” he wrote on AZ Central.

According to MacEachern’s original column, the board also created an “Equity Team” to ensure “a commitment to social justice for all students.”

“The happy-face edu-speak notwithstanding, what the Tucson Unified School District board of governors has approved this summer is a race-based system of discipline,” MacEachern concluded. “Offenses by students will be judged, and penalties meted out, depending on the student’s hue.”

However, school officials have refuted MacEachern’s description of the policy as “two-tiered” and argued that the new guidelines will only help correct racial inequalities that already exist in the system.

TUSD Governing Board member Adelita Grijalva told the Daily Star that MacEachern’s column was right in one aspect:

“Currently, we do have a two-tiered system,” she said. “If you look at children of color vs. Caucasian children, you will see that for the same kind of offenses, children of color are getting more severe consequences.”

The board’s report includes statistics that while American Indian students make up only 4 percent of the student body, they account for 20 percent of the suspensions across the district. And while black students only make up 7 percent of the student body, they account for 16.3 percent of out-of-school suspensions.

Grijalva also told the Star that administrators have had too much discretion over the years to give some kids a pass while throwing the book at others; and since the majority of teachers are white, they might not understand cultural differences.

“This will allow us to look at the situation with a bigger lens,” she said, “and I am 100 percent supportive of it.”

TUSD Assistant Superintendent Jim Fish told the Star that MacEachern had misunderstood what is meant by the board’s plan to adopt a more “restorative” culture and that seeing a two-tiered system of discipline in the policy is “far-fetched.”

“This would apply to all children,” Fish said. “There is no such thing as treating one class of students differently.”

Fish explained that suspensions and expulsions, which he sees as punitive and ultimately damaging to the students’ academic progress, will be reduced across the district, replaced instead with disciplinary measures that present “restorative” learning opportunities.

For example, Fish related to the Star, he dealt recently with a pair of students involved in a fight. Instead of an automatic suspension, he called the boys, their parents and a counselor into a meeting. The group discussed how the boys’ actions affected others and how disappointed the parents were. After the students expressed remorse and shook hands, they went back to class instead of being sent home.

“We’re teaching kids about the mistakes they’ve made,” Fish said. “People miss the point because they assume when they’re disciplining kids, they’re doing that. But they’re really punishing kids. If you’re out of school 10 days or 45 days and you’re not dealing with the infraction, you haven’t changed your thoughts or behaviors or actions.”

Fish explained that some behaviors, including having drugs or weapons at school will still carry suspensions, but many other instances would be better handled as restorative learning opportunities.